Give and Take
by Orion Kohaishu
Summary: They were in the thick of the fray, whirling and ducking and twisting like a well-oiled machine.  Give and take.  It was always give and take with them, an equal partnership.  They fought together like they loved. Elissa/Alistair


**Give and Take**

By Orion Kohaishu

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Ummm, there was supposed to be a plot to this but in between the start and the finish it turned into more of a character sketch (that's totally cool, I dig character sketches) of Elissa and Alastair, both on and off the battlefield. Anyways, first Dragon Age fic. I've been in love with Bioware for years, just never got around to giving my characters their stories until now. This is one of those "forcing myself to write something" pieces I mention vaguely on my profile, so it's not really going anywhere.

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"_It's an honor to die at your side."_

"_It's an honor to have lived at yours."_

_-300_

_._

_._

Elissa whirled through the battlefield like an electrical current, a blur of brown and gold and silver that bounced from target to target with a ting-ting-ting of metal on metal. She was a dervish of dual wielding, her trusty meteorite longsword hacking and scything a swatch through the press of Darkspawn bodies while her dragonbone dagger danced behind, stabbing and nipping.

She was a small thing in person, barely the height of an elf or a longsword, a lean thing, all sinew and ropey muscles and scar tissue. A true warrior maiden. Awkward adolescent clumsiness transformed into lethal grace with addition of plate armor that weighed near as much as she. Her body hummed in combat, vibrating with a limitless, effervescent energy that allowed her a near superhuman speed between the mobs of enemies. She could have excelled as a rogue.

She lacked the dedication for it. Not to say she wasn't intelligent enough, but the hard and fast force of melee combat was all she had known. The exhilaration found in the thick of combat, the breathless slam and bash of charging into a fight against larger than fair odds. There was a calm to it, at least for her. Hearing focused down to a white noise of drums; they'd had drums at Ostagar, the attacking force, and she'd forever since associated facing off against the Darkspawn with a pulsing, tribal drumbeat.

_Thud_. A hurlock turned and spotted her. _Thud_. It roared. _Thud_. She could smell it, damp and rot and burning and the sweat of combat. _Thud_. _Thud_. It was coming straight for her now, axe swung up for a crushing blow. _Thud_. The drumbeat increased. _Thudthudthud_. She found footing against a rock and lunged, dagger from the side and longsword straight it, wrenching away as soon as she made contact.

The force of her rush thrust her blade through the hurlock up to the hilt, her turn tearing it free and casting the corpse aside as her sword carried the momentum through and into a perfect strike at the next opponent. Grey eyes met gold, her dagger stopping inches short of the familiar armor. Alistair winked roguishly at her; she tossed him an affectionate smile. There was a moment of respite, coiled muscles loosening only just as the two warriors drew in a precious, deep breath. Her shoulder twitched minutely, readjusting a strap within her armor. He swiped the back of a mailed hand against his brow in a futile attempt to dry it.

"Liss," was all he said, his eyes flicking down. She ducked instinctively, his shield shooting out over her like a charging bronto to fiercely pummel the charging genlock behind her onto its back. Sliding beneath his outstretched arm, she rose to a fighter's crouch at his back; she could feel him similarly adjust himself. As the only two Wardens on the field, their presence drew the largest party of Darkspawn - about fifteen formed a hesitant circle around them.

An archer was to her right. He fired off a close-range shot in her direction, and she drew in a sharp breath to steel herself; she'd been shot before, arrows finding ways through the seams in her armor. That was her dagger arm. She'd manage. _Twang_. _Thud_. She hardly flinched at the pressure of Alistair's arm rocking back into hers, his shield cast backwards to catch the blow, instead using the motion to accelerate her swing into a genlock's neck. A gush of blood told her she'd caught the artery.

_Thud_. The drumbeat was off, and she recognized the sound as Alistair kicking a Darkspawn in the chest to knock it back - she'd thank him for the loan of his shield arm later. No time now. They were in the thick of the fray, whirling and ducking and twisting like a well-oiled machine. Give and take. It was always give and take with them, an equal partnership.

They fought together like they loved, at any moment hyper aware of the other both in action or intent. It was a sixth sense: touch, taste, sight, sound, smell, YOU. They knew the other's thoughts within a moment of its first thinking, could read the flick of a gaze or the twitch of a muscle like a manual. Part of it was as Wardens and the bond that forged between them, that extra-sensory awareness wrought in blood and tradition. Another part was as soldiers, brothers in arms who had fought together and trusted and from that lived to fight together again. A team.

They'd dispatched, either dead or wounded, of nearly all their small horde, working as a single being with four deadly arms and a single cunning brain, reacting as a single warrior. She caught the downward thrust of a blade against hers, the momentum throwing her back; he carried the force forward into a brutal attack, skipping backwards again and tossing her into another. It went like this, back and forth. Give and take.

_Thud_. The drumbeat ended. The two warriors paused again to catch their breath, regroup. He wrenched the arrow from his shield, examining the barbed tip before tossing it to the ground at her feet with a sly smile. She tugged a quick adjustment to the leather straps of his armor, tightening the arm piece that had loosened as he shielded her and shooting down his expression with an exasperated roll of her eyes. No words. Give and take.

She brushed the back of her gauntlet against his, and her heart did that skip-beat _thunkthunk_ it did whenever they touched.

_Thud_.

The drumbeat came again, different in her mind, and the ogre's roar as it rushed over the hill mingled. _Thud_. It slammed a tree out of the way. _Thud_. Sensed them, changed directions. _Thud_. Pounded its chest in challenge. _Thud_.

He looked down and caught her gaze with a wicked grin, and they charged the beast together, his longer reach scything out at its stomach as she ducked beneath his blow to hamstring it. His shield scooted her forward, between its legs, and took a forceful blow to the chest as a distraction. From behind she was almost invisible to it, launching as high as she could up on the beast to stab her sword through as a hold. Her other arm brought the dagger up into its neck. It bucked against the attack, trying to dislodge her, before hunching forward as Alistair's sword slid through its chest. As it reached an arm out to swat him away she struck with the dagger again.

They were like a single creature, able to be in two places at once. He would strike, she would counter. The ogre would attack one, leaving the other the opening to attack back. Give and take.

It caught a lucky bash with its horns, sending Alistair a good ten feet back and leaving him winded. Elissa got in another blow before it finally managed to get an arm back and around her, throwing her off. She landed within feet of her partner, equally breathless.

"Funny seeing you here," he quipped as they both rolled for their feet.

She responded with a winning smile. "We've **got **to stop meeting like this."

The ogre had pawed itself back into a more defensible position, and it shook itself clear for another attack. They could see the charge coming in the way it set its shoulder and scuffed its feet into the dirt for give. They had only seconds to react. _Thud_. The beast roared. Alistair shot to one side, Elissa to the other. _Thud_. The very ground shook with the force of the charge, and the air was thick with its war cry. She launched herself from one side, swinging her sword down to catch in its back as she clambered up with her dagger towards its skull. He dropped his shield and used both hands for a mighty blow from the other, his sword swinging up to cleave the beast's chest open. Give and take.

It dropped, leaving the two of them standing amidst the carnage and panting heavily. The distant metallic tang-tang-tang told them the battle was not yet over, but the drumbeat in her mind was slow now; it was nearly won. Elissa sheathed her weapons, rolling her neck free of kinks that the heavy armor bearing down on her could cause. Alistair's weapon was already away, and he bent down to retrieve his shield. She was beside him in a moment.

"I love you, Ali," she purred at him. Her hands were somehow free of their mailed gloves and splayed across his chestplate, the sparkle of combat energy still in her eyes. He reached up with one hand to remove his helm and tossed it in the direction of his shield, the other drawing her close for a scorching kiss. She leaned into him just as fiercely.

Give and take.

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Wheeeee, finally getting back into writing since Bug was born! And just in time for DA:II to come out! =)


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